Vacation Finally....

Thank-god I am on vacation until the middle of October...oh minus the on-call shift I have tomorrow that my supervisor stuck me with. These past four days on shift have been crazy and it's taken strength to get through them. Should I start with the bad? Ok, I was the noon to midnight person all 4 night and on one of the nights I was told to do another doctor's surgery so that he didn't have to stay any longer after his shift...and I had my own to do as well...and he got to come in 2 hours later for his shift...meanwhile I was there until 5:30AM...and had to be back the next day...only got 3 hours of sleep...he got about 6!!!! I hate favoritism....needless to say I was very mad that night. That was Sunday and we were so busy on Sunday that it wasn't even funny. Saw another hit by car dog, a little bulldog who had a choking episode because the owner pulled too hard on his leash to yank him up from a woodchip pile (this causes an instant increase in pressures and you end up with non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema = fluid in the lungs) and then you end up with a blue little bulldog who is vomiting and in respiratory distress. Put him in oxygen right away and ran some bloodwork and radiographs - classical pattern in the lungs of the alveolar-interstitial pattern in the caudodorsal lung fields. Talked with owner becuase usually these cases will clear with supportive care in 24hrs, however there is the chance they get worse and need to be placed on a ventilator. He was not willing to pay the full price so got him to at least hospitalize overnight with 12 hours of oxygen. Came in the next day and he was going home so I talked with the owner again...he was a really nice guy and really happy with what he feels like I did for the dog...which was only nasal oxygen for 12 hrs but hey if client is happy and dog is alive and well then I guess I have done my job. Saw Oscar the Lynx back again last night - so ended up his bladder ruptured and he had needed surgery and was in our ICU for days...he was back for a recheck ultrasound and bloodwork last night...he is mean though so we had to sedate him which took up 2 hours while we finally found something that would work for sedation without fully anesthetizing him. He is so cool to work with...when he is asleep of course. Never would have though I would have been treating a lynx!!! Cool part of the job. Our new intern finally started...we will see how she likes it. She too comes from Minnesota - we are all coming ot WI for some reason...she worked at that Banfield in Bloomington that I was supposed to work at that one summer!! Weird huh? Repaired a laceration on the foot of a dog that had jumped through the window to get at a chipmunk, the surgery I did for Jason was an abcess explore -- huge swellings on the side of this Rottweiler that luckily ended up to be mostly cellulitis so I just opened up one small abcess but it didn't track anywhere so flushed real well and closed it up. Then too a few punch biopsy of the cellulitis areas and stuck a few sutures in them. What else did I see...seizure dog that I kept over for watch last night...he is going to continue work-up with rDVM. Saw a couple cats with UTI's (just send home with pain meds and antibiotics) and one blocked cat (hospitalize with catheter). Saw a beagle yesterday with diarrhea and occasional vomiting, the guy had just moved up here from Florida and so didn't have a vet yet. The dog had lots of lipomas (fatty masses on skin) that he wanted to make sure were just that so I aspirated all of those and they were just fat. Also radiographed his left shoulder because he had constant lameness on it...it was DJD (arthritis)...this is a 50 pound beagle (they should be 20-25 pounds). So put him on some NSAIDS for that - not to start though until diarrhea and vomiting was cleared up for 2 weeks because explained they can cause GI ulcers. Took abdominal radiographs and not signs of obstruction or other problems. Ran a fecal which was normal. Ran bloodwork (lytes and chemistry) which were normal. So, gave some SQ fluids and sent him home on metronidazole (antibiotic) and dewormer course. The one thing that was off was he had a high PCV - 53%/TS - 7.4. I explained he might have the start of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis and with a high PCV we worry about sludging of the blood and clots...usually treatment is supportive with IV fluids...he didn't want to hospitalize so I just said to watch really close and if it continued to have him re-evaluated. He will probably do fine with the antibiotics but you never know. It is Chicago this weekend for me for the Surgery conference I have to go to, not so excited about that but we are going to spend some time in Chicago so it should be fun. Then I will be visiting some of the schools around the midwest here for interviews for residency positions...even though I don't really want to stick around here...for residencies can't be picky. Later...